Miscellaneous Thoughts On Dentistry And Biotechnology

Monthly Archives: October 2016

The global changes to the dentistry practice plus the impact of oral disease are the main concerns of The Future of Oral Health, a journal produced collaboratively by Scientific American Custom Media and the Colgate-Palmolive franchise. It was launched at the American Dental Association’s Annual Conference in Denver, highlighting key ideals (listed below) to ensure the Oral Health landscape improves in terms of prevention and treatment.

Catering for the oral health of the growing elderly population. This peer group is mostly affected by caries and periodontal ailings, therefore the latest biotechnological inventions should be easily accessible, and also be relatively cheap with regard to cost-of-care for the affected.

Integration on oral health with other subfields in medicine. The relationship between dental and medical communities/proponents should de-silo and combine as a whole to deliver better health care to patients.

Constantly employing ideals/philosophies and advancements which mandate more accommodative, real-time/on-demand approaches to cater even for the hard-to-reach populations.

Portland cement, also referred to as Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA), is a bioactive compound employed to preserve the pulp, together with the periodontal tissue vitality. Dental procedures involving the above mentioned material include pulp capping and the perforation repair activities.

Normally, the above undertaking is done via use of metals with requisite physical and mechanical characteristics including low density and mechanical resistance, to in turn guarantee adherence/conformity to other dental and medical devices. Dental implants are manufactured from titanium alloys, which have to be coated with the hydroxyapatite compound to assist in bone formation and healing.

Currently, molecular technologies have surged in the dentistry domain. Bioactive productshave played a key role in ensuring negation of concerns arising from antibiotic/anti-microbial medication overuse.

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was granted to Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese biologist who studies the process of waste digestion/recycling in cells, known as “autophagy.”

Autophagy is derived from Greek, and translates to “self eating.” It describes the process by which cells break down non-essential components within themselves and reuse it to release energy, perform metabolic functions, or give way to new functional parts. The disruption of autophagy is also thought to have a key role in cancer, immunological/neurological diseases, and aging.

In his research, Ohsumi experimented with yeast cells to identify 15 genes responsible for coding the elaborate mechanism of autophagy. Ohsumi’s work has led to a plethora of research in the field of autophagy, as more and more scientists are starting to recognize the value and potential that innovations in this field can have. Understanding the intricate mechanisms that guide cellular processes can shed light on possible cures for diseases such as cancer or Parkinson’s disease.

Nano-biotechnology refers to the methodology of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease/injury, of alleviating pain and improving health/well-being, via nanoscale structured products, biotechnological practise and even the complex machine integrations (nanorobots).

Ozone therapy

The oral cavity resembles an open ecosystem, being involved a unique combination of activities including the control of micro-organism entry and hosting defenses meant to negate them. To avoid elimination, bacteria often seek refuge by sticking to hard dental surfaces or epithelial linings. That in turn leads to the formation and development of oral biofilm, an occurrence documented as a contributing factor to the most common pathologies such dental carries and periodontal ailing. The machine based removal of biofilm and the subsequent use of disinfectants/antibiotics has served as the most conventional means of periodontal therapy. Nonetheless, Ozone (03), composed of a three oxygen atom/triatomic structure, has been utilized in recent times to provide treatment for 250 different pathologies. Ozone therapy has proved to be more effective than the conventional therapeutic modality, since the ozone gas exhibits a relatively high oxidation characteristic (1.5 times more than chloride) requisite in the antimicrobial operations against viruses, fungi and bacteria.